The Life of Gaius
by afanoflife
Summary: Life was never dull when one lived in Camelot. An ongoing collection of short stories about the life of Gaius in Camelot.
1. Chapter 1

The door to Gaius' chambers burst open with a loud crash. As Gaius jumped in surprise, the vial he had been holding in his hand fell to the floor with a shattering of glass. He whirled around in time to see Merlin and Sir Leon stumbling into the room, burdened by the body that they carried between them.

Arthur, head lolling and barely conscious, was slung between the two men. Needless to say, Gaius could tell that something was seriously the matter with him. "Quickly! Set him over here," he said rapidly, gesturing to the bed in the corner of the room. As soon as his ward and the knight set him down, Gaius began looking over the prince, attempting to find out what had happened to the young man.

"Gaius," Sir Leon said, "I know that the priority is the prince, but when you get a chance, you should take a look at Merlin. He was hit earlier, and he was bl-"

Merlin interrupted Leon quickly, interjecting his own comment. "I'm fine. Look, Gaius. While Arthur and knights were out on patrol, Morgana came out of nowhere. She attacked us. Arthur's wound- it was caused by-" but before his explanation could be finished, Merlin's eyes suddenly rolled back in his head and he fell to the floor.

Gaius stared at the body on the floor, but quickly jumped into action. "Leon, move Merlin into his room for me and see if you can find the source of whatever ails him. I'll be up as soon as I finish with Prince Arthur!"

Sir Leon bent down and carefully picked Merlin up off of the ground. As soon as the knight was gone, Gaius sighed in exasperation. Just _once_, Gaius would like to have a relatively quiet and event free day. Instead, he had a broken vial to clean up off the floor, a prince that looked to be on the verge of death, a ward that mysteriously fainted, and a possible magical issue to contend with.

An eyebrow of his slowly rose up, and he felt himself shrug to himself. Life in Camelot was never dull.


	2. Chapter 2

Despite being an elderly, learned man, Gaius had many things he had not yet done in his life...one of which was conquering his extreme fear of heights.

Few people in Gaius' life knew about his fear. After all, his fear, he would willing admit, was a tad bit ridiculous. He lived in a castle that was filled with many high places, some of which he was required to go to in order to do his job as Court Physician. Camelot itself was a place that seemed to contain an unusually large amount of cliffs, mountains, and other such high places.

Over the years, he had made an attempt to overcome his fear. However, whenever he climbed up higher than three feet, his knees started to shake. His vision started to swim. His palms became unbelievably sweaty. Of course, all of these things made it difficult to do his job properly (the Knights of Camelot had an unfortunate habit of getting injured in the oddest- and highest- places).

The closest he had come to overcoming his fear was a few years ago. On that particularly memorable occasion, Gaius had climbed up to the second story of his chambers in order to search for a book he had not seen in many years. No one had been available at the time to help him find the book, so he had tentatively climbed the stairs.

While still a little queasy feeling, Gaius seemed to be handling the heights well (as long as he kept himself from looking out over the room). However, that feeling changed in a matter of seconds. His soon to be ward had come into the room, surprising him and causing him to fall from the top of the second floor. To say that his life had flashed before his eyes would be an understatement.

Luckily, the magic-wielding Merlin had reacted quickly to save his life. While he was grateful for Merlin's efforts, the incident had left him struggling with his fear all the more intensely.

Despite being an elderly, learned man, he still found himself doing some incredibly stupid things.

Like believing Merlin when he said he could help Gaius overcome his fears.

Or actually allowing Merlin to help him overcome his fears.

Or, and this was probably the stupidest thing he had ever done, allowing himself to be plopped on the back of a dragon and finding himself hundreds of feet up in the air.


	3. Chapter 3

There were times that Gaius seemed to forget how much time he had spent living in Camelot. The majority of his life had been spent living within the walls of the city, learning the art of healing.

It was in moments of solitude that Gaius was able to remember his life before Camelot. It had been a long day tending to the sick and hurt that had brought Gaius to sit in front of the fire. And it was as he stared into the dancing flames that his mind was flooded with memories.

_He was laying under a blanket, attempting to hide from what he knew to be a monster outside. A gentle hand caressed the top of his head, whispering to him that he had nothing to worry about...He was running through a small field, chasing the older boy in front of him. He was angry. The boy- his brother- had stolen the small treat his father had given him...Arms were around him. He could smell the scent of her hair and he could feel her warm skin through her dress. Alice…_

A hand jostled against his shoulder, causing him to start with surprise. "Gaius? Gaius, are you okay?"

Gaius turned his face in the direction of the voice, finding Merlin staring at him in concern.

"I'm fine," he replied, "I was just caught up in a memory."


	4. Chapter 4

Gaius had just finished seeing to Lord Heatherton and was on his way back to his chambers. Lord Heatherton was a piece of work (and that was putting it mildly) and often reluctant to receive any treatment. To a certain extent, Giaus could understand this. After all, the man had found himself on the wrong end of an attempted poisoning a time or two. However, that had been years ago. There hadn't been any signs of attempted poisonings since then. Perhaps he could try slipping a few of medicines into-

Gaius suddenly stopped walking and cocked his head to the side. He could have sworn that he had heard a cry coming from someone. He listened intently, trying to pick up the sound again. A few seconds later, he found himself turning down a side corridor in search of the faint noise.

Before long, Gaius found himself crouching down beside a tearful Prince Arthur. "There, there," Gaius said as he placed his hand on the shoulder of the young prince, "What seems to be the matter?"

Using the sleeve of his shirt, Arthur attempted to wipe away the snot pouring from his nose. As he did, a single word left his lips, "Garreth."

Gaius signed, not at all surprised by Arthur's response. Garreth was Arthur's tutor. The prince's recent birthday a few weeks ago meant that he was old enough to begin receiving lessons. Since their start, Arthur and Garreth were most definitely not seeing eye to eye on things. Gaius took a few moments to think of how he should go about handling the situation.

Gaius decided that there was only one course of action to be had. He lowered himself completely to the floor and prepared himself to be there for a while. Chances are, the young prince just needed someone to talk to about things. While Uther could be a caring parent at times, he was not one to sit and listen to the feelings of others. Gaius would simply offer the lad a listening ear.

"My dear boy, tell me all about it."


	5. Chapter 5

Gaius was not in a good mood. Not even in the slightest. His stomach was growling louder than it ever had before. He was tired enough to fall asleep while standing. And on top of everything, his body ached from walking around and standing all day long.

For the past week or so, an illness had broken out within the castle and the surrounding city. He had spent the better part of the week running and back and forth, attending to the various needs and complaints of the sick. The worst of which had actually been King Uther himself. A king he might be, but the man became utterly insufferable the moment he started to not feel well.

Needless to say, Gaius was looking forward to being back in his chambers. He had plans to finally get some food in his stomach and to relax with a nice cup of herbal tea before turning in for the night. He had a feeling that tomorrow would turn out to be much the same.

When Gaius finally reached his door, he allowed a small smile to appear on his face. _Finally home._

As he pushed the door open, Gaius' mood started to lighten with the promise of being able to get off his feet. However, once he was fully inside the room and saw what was in front of him, he came to a sudden stop. Instantly, his mood plummeted, going from bad to worse.

His room was an utter disaster. His books had been thrown to the floor, some of the pages coming loose from their bindings. The table where he prepared his various stores of medicine had been knocked over, and its contents were scattered to the furthest corners of the room. Articles of clothing, some belonging to him and some belonging to his ward, were hanging from various surfaces throughout the room.

For some reason, and why Gaius was even surprised he couldn't tell you, Merlin and Prince Arthur were running around the room, chasing after something that Gaius hadn't the chance to identify.

"You idiot, Merlin! Use the net! The net!" shouted the prince angrily, diving to the side and falling to the ground as something came racing toward his face.

From across the room, Merlin yelled his reply, "You prat, what do you think I've been trying to do?"

Gaius watched as Merlin went over the the fallen prince and took a firm stance, a look of concentration on his face as readied the net. He watched as Merlin swung the net at the moving creature, and looked on, unsurprised, to see Merlin miss the creature entirely. Instead of catching the flying thing, he had caught Arthur's face instead.

It was at that moment that Gaius shook his head and turned back to the door. As he left the room, he heard an annoyed "_Mer_lin" coming from the prince.

In an even worse mood now, still tired, still hungry, and still aching, Gaius walked in the direction of Geoffrey of Monmouth's rooms. Perhaps when he returned from visiting with the man, whatever was going on in his rooms would be done with. He could only hope.


	6. Chapter 6

"Please, Sire! You must have some sense in the matter!" Gaius yelled. "Your leg hasn't fully healed yet and you are in no fit condition to be traipsing across the length of Camelot!"

Gaius breathed in deeply, trying to calm himself down. He knew that he was treading on thin ice with the king.

Uther glared at Gaius, not wanting to admit that the old man had a point. "I am the king, and if I want to join the search for _my son_, then I shall."

Gaius, in a fit of exasperation, threw his hands up in the air, frustrated with the sheer stupidity and lack of common sense coming from the king at this moment in time. He took another deep breath. Maybe if he kept doing it, it would actually work to calm him down.

"You have the finest knights in all of Camelot at your disposal. They are more than capable of finding the prince. If you go with them, you would slow the process down. Please, let them handle it while you allow your leg to rest and heal."

Uther glared at the Court Physician once again. "My decision has been made, Gaius. I'm going." With that, he flicked his wrist at his servant, sending him off to ready his horse.

Gaius shook his head. "Fine. Get up and walk to the door."

"What?"

"I said, get up and walk to the door."

Uther grunted as he struggled with rising from his chair. Once up, he tentatively took a step in the direction Gaius had indicated. As soon as he placed weight on his injured leg, a sharp cry came from his lips without his permission. He collapsed back into his chair, trying to get over the new bout of pain.

Gaius walked over to stand directly beside the king. He offered a small bottle to Uther, the contents of which would help alleviate some of his pain. As Uther took it, Gaius began to speak,"I know that you are worried for Arthur, my Lord, but you really are better off letting Sir Leon lead the search for him. He's capable, and I'm sure they will find Arthur as soon as they possibly can."

The king remained silent, coming to terms with the fact that he wouldn't be able to go after Arthur.

Sensing that he needed to leave the king to himself, Gaius bowed and walked out of the room. He understood Uther's frustrations in not being able to go after the prince. Like the king, Gaius was also missing someone important to him. Merlin had been out with Arthur when they had gone missing, and Gaius was worried about his ward. While not suffering from an injury, Gaius' age and role as Court Physician kept him from joining in on the search. He would just have to hope that both Arthur and Merlin would be found soon.


End file.
